The original mandate aimed to find a new direction for the world renowned International Herald Tribune just as both the World Wide Web was in its infancy, and the newspaper faced increased competition from international and regional editions of established newspapers and magazines such as The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, and The Financial Times.

Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED), through its Spectrum Management Innovation Directorate, sought support in applying risk-based decision making (RBDM) across its compliance and enforcement responsibilities. The department was looking for a structured and data-driven approach to prioritize regulatory actions in a way that reflects risks to the public interest.

Under the supervision of Director Purcell and his cabinet, the six-month project began with an internal review of attitudes, projects, responsibilities and management reporting lines. The work uncovered multiple inconsistencies and inefficiencies. What's more, there were very real risk consequences at the operational level.

Environment and Climate Change Canada, with Health Canada, wanted to understand perceptions of the health risks from smoke from wildfires and from residential burning (winter heating using wood stoves, and fireplaces), and public health communication approaches and messages used in these contexts. This information would support revisions of the health messages used in the Air Quality Health Index (AQHI). The AQHI expresses the health risk associated with three common urban air pollutants, and is calculated at monitoring stations in communities across Canada to inform the public of the risk level of current local air quality conditions.

Facing renewed challenges in securing a reliable domestic plasma supply, Canadian Blood Services sought support to apply a Risk-Based Decision-Making (RBDM) framework. The objective was to assess the value and implications of expanding domestic plasma collection and processing capacity in response to the emergence of commercial plasma operations that export plasma to international markets.

In response to public and ministerial concerns about the timeliness and adequacy of information shared during a major prescription drug recall, Health Canada commissioned an independent review to assess its response to the event. The situation involved a recall of the oral contraceptive Alysena, issued due to packaging issues that altered the intended dosing sequence and raised questions about potential unintended health risks.

Health Canada sought expert support in advancing its efforts to develop screening values for semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) commonly found in residential indoor environments. Previous work on indoor air contaminants had focused on volatile organic compounds (VOCs), where screening values were developed based on existing inhalation quantitative hazard assessments (QHAs). However, many SVOCs were identified as having insufficient data to establish such values, leaving critical gaps in risk evaluation.

To enhance the methodological rigour of its scientific assessments, EFSA sought to develop a standardised framework for problem formulation (PF) within its non-application scientific assessment protocols. The goal was to support the planning phase of these assessments by establishing a structured, reproducible approach for translating mandates into scientifically answerable questions. This included creating a framework…